‘C.O.G.,’ ‘Our Nixon’ Take Seattle Film Fest Prizes

The 39th Seattle Film Fest awarded prizes Sunday including Penny Lane’s “Our Nixon” for best doc and “C.O.G.,” adapted from a David Sedaris essay, for best new American film. The best new director award went to Emir Baigazin from Kazakhstan for his feature debut “Harmony Lessons.”

The 25-day Seattle event is the largest festival in the U.S., with 447 films, and kicked off on May 16.

Artistic and co-director Carl Spence said, “The opportunity for audiences to meet more than 200 directors with their films across 25 days with massive attendance illustrated once again that Seattle has the most engaged, lively and active audiences of any city in the U.S.”

Directed and written by Kyle Patrick Alvarez from the Sedaris essay, “C.O.G.” is set in the Pacific Northwest and features music by Steve Reich. A special doc jury prize went to Lucy Walker for “The Crash Reel,” about injured snowboarder Kevin Pearce.

The Golden Space Needle audience awards went to “Fanie Fourie’s Lobola,” directed by South Africa’s Henk Pretorius, for best film; “Twenty Feet from Stardom,” for best doc; Nabil Ayouch for best director for “Horses of God”; James Cromwell for best actor in “Still Mine”; Samantha Morton for best actress in “Decoding Annie Parker” and “Spooners” for best short.

In the juried short film awards, “My Right Eye (The Apple of My Eye)” took the live action prize, “Keep a Modest Head” took the docu prize and “Woody” took the animation prize.